


(the devil's in the) details

by schweet_heart



Series: Merlin Fic [163]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur Pendragon Returns, Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Canonical Character Death, Devotion, F/M, Idiots in Love, Immortal Merlin, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Parallels, Resurrection, Symbolism, love tokens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 00:55:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17131961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schweet_heart/pseuds/schweet_heart
Summary: Merlin wears the sigil on a silver chain around his neck, bearing the weight of it lightly against his heart. He carries it for over a thousand years, and, but for one day, he never takes it off.Written forMerthurDaily's10 Years of Merthur Celebration 2018, Day 6: Details.





	(the devil's in the) details

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this](http://magic-in-us.tumblr.com/post/42137976870/royal-seal-and-mothers-sigil) amazing gifset.

 

Arthur’s mother has the sigil commissioned a few days after her marriage, citing—she says—the need for a queen to assert her own identity in her husband’s kingdom. It bears her family crest, a raven in flight, and even though the design is simple she loves it the more because it is so unlike the opulence that surrounds her.

 

“I can have it remade for you in gold,” King Uther offers, studying the modest piece with a critical eye. “Precious stones for the circlet, perhaps, with the beak off-set in silver.”

 

“No, thank you,” says Ygraine, taking it back from him. “I think I prefer it just as it is.”

 

 

+

 

 

Arthur inherits the ring and the sigil both, under similar circumstances: his parents are dead, although his mother’s seal comes to him more circuitously, being a gift on the day he becomes Crown Prince.

 

“Since she could not be with you in person,” Uther said, “I think she would like you to have this.”

 

It weighs heavily in Arthur’s palm, and yet, he carries it more easily than he carries his father’s ring. There are times when the ring seems to fit too tightly, to sit too ostentatiously against his skin, and when he takes it off to give himself room to breathe it leaves red marks that are slow to fade.

 

He doesn’t carry the sigil with him often—it serves no purpose, and it would devastate him to lose it. When he does, however, it sits in a pouch at his belt, a comforting weight, a talisman to reach for in times of trouble or distress.

 

“She would have been proud of you,” King Uther added. “My son.”

 

Arthur likes to believe that she would.

 

 

+

 

 

“I want you to have it,” he tells Merlin, later. There is a rightness to the moment as it lies between them, an urgency that suggests it should be marked by something real. He loves Gwen. He could never have married another. But Merlin—

 

“I can’t take that,” Merlin says, but Arthur closes his hands around it, regretting the leather of his gloves where it dulls the sensation.

 

“It’s mine to give,” he says. “And yours to keep, if you’ll accept it.”

 

He doesn’t say anything else, but he watches Merlin hold it when he thinks Arthur is asleep, tracing the edge with sensitive fingers. He thinks Ygraine would probably understand his choice, although his father never would.

 

 

+

 

 

He doesn’t live to see Guinevere inherit the ring, but he knows she will accept it, that she will bear his loss the way she has borne many losses before and remain unbroken. When the time comes, when both she and the ring have reached the end of their effectiveness, she will be buried with it.

 

Merlin wears the sigil on a silver chain around his neck, bearing the weight of it lightly against his heart. He carries it for over a thousand years, and, but for one day, he never takes it off.


End file.
